His sister, Kerry Kennedy, said that his decision to endorse Trump betrayed the family’s values. “It is a sad ending to a sad story,” she said on social media.

For a time, both the Biden and Trump campaigns showed signs they were worried that Kennedy could draw enough support to change the election outcome. His name is on the ballot in Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota and North Carolina – half of the competitive swing states expected to determine the election’s outcome.

But as the race changed quickly in the last two months – with Trump surviving an assassination attempt and the 81-year-old Biden bowing to pressure from his own party and passing the campaign torch to Harris – voter interest in Kennedy, 70, waned. An Ipsos poll early this month showed his national support had fallen to 4 per cent, a tiny number, but one that could still be meaningful in a tight race such as the current Trump-Harris match-up.

Democrats shrugged off his announcement.

“Donald Trump isn’t earning an endorsement that’s going to help build support, he’s inheriting the baggage of a failed fringe candidate. Good riddance,” Democratic National Committee senior adviser Mary Beth Cahill said in a statement.

The Democratic Party has been ruthless in their opposition to Kennedy’s candidacy, including waging legal challenges against his ballot access, as concern grew that Kennedy could hurt the party’s chances in November.

Bear, brain worms

Kennedy said this month in a video posted online that he dumped a dead bear in New York City’s Central Park a decade ago and staged it to look like a bike had hit it. He proclaimed he had “so many skeletons in my closet” after a former family babysitter accused him of sexual assault. He denied that a picture of him posing with the barbecued carcass of a large animal belonged to a canine.

And then there was the brain worm. Kennedy had a parasite in his brain more than a decade ago, but has since fully recovered, a fact unearthed by The New York Times and confirmed by the campaign.

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In exchange for endorsing Trump, Kennedy was hoping for a job in a potential Trump administration, a political action committee supporting Kennedy told Reuters on Wednesday. He also wanted Trump to allow his political movement to continue in some fashion, which could include staying on the ballot in some states.

Kennedy has painted himself as a political outsider. He told Reuters in an interview in March that if elected president he would not restrict abortion, would repeal many provisions of Biden’s signature Inflation Reduction Act and would seek to close down the southern border to immigrants entering the US illegally. He also offered staunch support for Israel.

In a video of a phone call posted online last month, Trump suggested to Kennedy that the independent candidate could do something to support the Trump campaign. Soon after, both candidates spoke a day apart from each other at a bitcoin conference in Nashville, trying to court votes.

Reuters